Explainer: How Netflix will find out if a user is sharing password

Netflix is ending password sharing in India. The video streaming app sent out emails to its subscribers in India asking to not share their passwords with people outside their ‘households’. This is a part of their strategy to accelerate revenue through subscription and subscription tiers that includes ads, and a crackdown on password sharing which is prevalent at scale in our country.

Everyone living in a particular ‘household’ can use Netflix wherever they are - at home, while going to work, or even on a holiday. But in a country like ours where the concept of household could be 2-3 members or 10-12 let’s say in a joint family set-up how will Netflix be able to restrict it to only the household?

Netflix will now allow only users on the same internet connection to access a particular account. Anybody who is not a part of the "Netflix Household" will not be able to access the content.

The company says it will use information such as IP addresses, device IDs, and account activity in order to determine if a device is part of a household or not.

Netflix has also requested subscribers to review which devices are signed into their account. Those who are currently using a borrowed account will be logged out and will only get a message on how to create a new account.

Netflix India currently has 4 monthly subscription plans: a mobile-only plan at ₹ 149, basic plan at ₹ 199, standard plan at ₹ 499 and a premium tier at ₹ 699. Under the premium plan, users can watch content simultaneously on up to 4 devices.

Since it announced a crackdown on password sharing, Netflix has been rapidly gaining subscribers and has already added 6 million new accounts globally. India being one of the big markets for the platform, this move could have a positive impact to improve the subscriber base in the country.